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Uganda’s Electoral Commission extends voting time

Thursday February 18 2016

People cast their vote in presidential and parliamentary polls at the Nasuti polling station in Mukono District, some 23 kilometres east of the capital Kampala, on February 18, 2016. PHOTO | AFP | ISAAC KASAMANI

In Summary

UCC’s director of corporate affairs Fred Otunnu said “we have switched off but only temporarily because as you know this is a very sensitive period”.

Sources also intimated that Museveni himself, the incumbent seeking a fifth elective term in office after 30 years in power, had also raised an alarm.

Mobile phone users subscribing to MTN and Airtel, networks that command a large following, were the most affected.

Voting was due to begin at 7am but was stalled for several hours in some polling stations in the city and surrounding Wakiso district when ballot boxes and papers did not arrive on time.

The capital traditionally shows strong support for the opposition.

"There has been a delay in delivery of polling materials in some parts of Wakiso district and Kampala capital city. The Electoral Commission regrets the delay," the commission said in a statement.

"The polling materials have now been delivered to all these places and polling has commenced in most of the places," the statement added.

Ugandan authorities also blocked social media platforms and mobile money networks as voting in the general elections got under way.

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) said access to social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook via mobile phones and the popular mobile money network had been temporarily blocked over “national security” concerns during the election period.

UCC’s director of corporate affairs Fred Otunnu said “we have switched off but only temporarily because as you know this is a very sensitive period”.

WhatsApp, a popular instant messaging service owned by Facebook, was shut down as early as 9am and was closely followed by mobile Facebook.

Sources, however, indicated the shutdown was ordered by top officials in the ruling party NRM and the military to control the avalanche of negative messages — word, audio and video — circulating on the platforms campaigning against President Yoweri Museveni.

Sources also intimated that Museveni himself, the incumbent seeking a fifth elective term in office after 30 years in power, had also raised an alarm.

WhatsApp is a popular cross-message platform that can be accessed by everyone using a smartphone.